Wave of bombings besets Baghdad as more bodies found

BAGHDAD -- The bodies of 32 security force recruits were found in Baghdad yesterday, and a wave of car bombs hit the city while Iraq's prime minister-designate vowed to unite all ethnic and sectarian groups.

Jawad al-Maliki is working on choosing a Cabinet, which will share power among Shi'ite Muslims, Sunni Arabs, and Kurds in a bid to end a Sunni insurgency and sectarian violence.

Maliki told CNN television that healing the divisions wracking postwar Iraq was his biggest job as its first permanent premier.

''The main challenge that I see is the existence of a torn relationship in the Iraqi community with all the sectarian and ethnic backgrounds," said the tough-talking Shi'ite politician.

''So I have to work first on uniting all of these elements together and work on a national reconciliation on the basis of national dialogue and common interests."

The 32 bodies were found in two places, Interior Ministry sources said. All the victims were from the rebel stronghold of Ramadi, 70 miles west of the capital.

Two car bombs near Baghdad's Mustansiriya University killed at least five people and wounded 25, officials said. A car bomb near the Health Ministry killed three people and wounded 25. Four other bombings in the city wounded at least 27 people.

Guerrillas attacked a police station near Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, killing four policemen. Rebels draw support from the Sunni minority once dominant under Hussein.

Maliki has four weeks to choose a new Cabinet and form a government of national unity, widely seen as the only way to halt the sectarian violence.

The Cabinet and Maliki's own appointment, made by President Jalal Talabani on Saturday, must be ratified by parliament.

A key test of his ability to lead and to unite will be his choice of interior minister, perhaps the most sensitive post given the brutal past many Iraqis endured under Hussein's rule and a present racked by relentless instability and violence.

''We want nothing but security and a safe community in which we can live and raise our children safely," said Wael Khamis, a 44-year-old businessman.

''All we have now is a hope and a dream of a better life. The coming government is our last chance. My wish is to take my family on a car ride without fear."

With Maliki in the process of forming a coalition and ending four months of political paralysis, Shi'ite neighbor Iran said there was no longer any need for talks with the United States to discuss Iraq's problems.

''By God's will we think that right now, because of the presence of a permanent government of Iraq, there is no need," President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told reporters in Tehran.

During the impasse among Iraqi leaders over the shape of a new government that followed December elections, Iran and the United States had agreed to discuss how to stabilize Iraq.

But while the political deadlock appears to be over, the bloodshed goes on.

Yarub Yassin, 22, scheduled to be married this week, was one of seven people killed in a rocket attack in Baghdad on Sunday.

He was buried yesterday with his body wrapped in the thin mattress and covers he had bought for his wedding night.

The horns and drums that were to have celebrated his wedding sounded as mourners wailed.

In Baghdad's heavily fortified so-called Green Zone, the court trying Hussein for crimes against humanity heard that signatures of the former leader and six co-accused on documents linking them to the killing of 148 Shi'ites in the 1980s were genuine.

The prosecution had demanded the court commission a team of criminal specialists to authenticate signatures and handwriting of the defendants.

Hussein and his half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti have refused to give samples of their writing but both have said there was no crime in prosecuting the 148 from the village of Dujail because they were accused of trying to kill the former Iraqi president.

The defendants could face death if found guilty. The trial was adjourned until May 15 to give the defense time to present their witnesses in the next session.

Hussein was unusually quiet during the proceedings.